Guard for rolls



Dec. 20, 1949 E. F. GOERG fl fiw GUARD FOR ROLLS Filed Sept. 26, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 35 36 I N V EN TOR.

E. F. GOERG GUARD FOR ROLLS Dec. 20, 1949 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 26, 1946 ATTORNE Y5 Patented Dec. 20, 1949 UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE GUARD FOR ROLLS Emil F. Goerg, Dunellen, N. J.

Application September 26, 1946, Serial No. 699,389

2 Claims.

This invention relates to machines having rolls for exerting heavy pressure on work that is fed to the machines by hand, and the invention relates more particularly 'to guards for preventing an operator's hand from being caught between the rolls.

Roll stands to which work is fed by hand present a safety hazard, and various devices, such as emergency shut-off switches, and latches for releasing roll tension, have been provided for limiting the extent of injury When an operator does have his hand caught in the rolls, but it is not always possible to operate such safety devices before considerable damage has been done.

Guards for preventing the operators hands from coming into the bite of the rolls have been applied to certain types of machines, but other machines could not be equipped with the known types of guards without interfering with the intended use of the machines, or seriously reducing their efiiciency. One kind of machine in particular, used for rolling sheets or plates into cylindrical or tubular forms, has been operated without guards because the workpiece on such a machine has to come over the top of the upper roll to be fed inward again from the front of the roll pass and has to be accessible for manipulation as it comes over th upper roll.

It is an object 'of this invention to provide improved guard means for a roll stand. The invention can be applied to roll stands generally on the feed side of the roll stand, but the more outstanding advantage of the invention is'that it can beapplied to machines for rolling sheets or plates to cylindrical or tubular shape. With such machines equipped with the guard means of this invention, it is not possible for an operator to have either of his hands caught in the bite of the rolls and yet the machine can be used just as efficiently as without the guard, and for rolling a workpiece to a diameter only slightly greater than the diameter of the upper roll around which the workpiece passes as it is brought to cylindrical or tubular shape.

' Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the de- Figure 2 is a front view of a por on of the" ....Jj v 5.

machine shown in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an end view mostly in section on. the line 3-3 of Figure 1. 3 5

The rolling machine shown in the drawings ineludes an upper roller I0 and a lower roller II defining a roll pass through which a workpiece moves. The lower roll II has necks at its opposite ends, each supported in a bearing I2 (Fig. 3) which is adjustable to move the lower roll II toward and from the upper roll II] to vary the height of the pass between the rolls III and. II. The bearing I2 is yieldably supported by spring means shown diagrammatically as coil springs I 4[ The machine can be adjusted so that the springs;

I4 hold the lower roll I I in contact with the upper roll ID with different degrees of pressure, and the term roll pass, as used herein, designates the region of tangency or minimum clearance between the rolls I0 and I I and is not to be undercurvature to which the machine bends a workpiece.

In Figure 3 a workpiece 2| is shown in dotted his hands close enough to the roll pass to inwhich the workpiece is bent upward by the rolls,

and advances beyond the auxiliary roll I6 and around the top of the upper roll I9 so that the forward end of the workpiece 2| can be again fed into the pass between the main rolls I0 andl I'- for several successive rolling operations that bring it to the final desired curvature. Because of the elasticity of the workpiece, a single rolling operation does not usually leave the workpiece with the curvature for which the rolls are set. The number of rolling operations required depends upon the kind of material and the thickness of the workpiece.

In order to prevent the operator from putting his hands close enough to the roll pass to involve danger of having one or both hands caught between the rolls Ill and ing a cylindrical shell that covers the top and front of the upper roll II] throughout the entire width of the working face of this upper roll. The forward end of the fixed guard close to the roll pass.

II, the machine is equipped with a fixed guard element 23 compris- 23 extends down v The guard includes also a movable guard element comprising two angle sections connected together, and one of which has a downwardly extending leg 26 which serves as an apron for covering the upper portion of the lower roll II. This movable guard element 25 has brackets 28 connected to the angle sections at opposite ends of the guard element, and these brackets 28 slide on confronting faces of a main frame 30 of a rolling machine; Opposite ends of the main frame 30 are connected together by tie rods 32 one of which is shown and others of which are located at the back of the machine.

The brackets 28 are held against the faces ;of the frame by screws 34 extending through slots 35 in the brackets and threaded into the frame 30. Each of the brackets 23 extends downwardly to links 36 which are connected to the bracket 28 by a pivot connection 38, and to a lever 39"by a pivot connection Ml. Each of the levers 35 is supported by a fulcrum shaft 32 extending the full length of the machine in the construction shown-in-the drawing. I

There is a counterweight M on the rearward end of each lever 39' and these oounterweights Mare adiustabl'e "lengthwise of the lever 39' and can be locked in any desired position with screws 45. The purpose of the counterweights M is to overba-lance the weight of the movable guard element 25 and its brackets 28 and linksfifi and the weights .44 are heavy enough so that they hold the guard element 25 in a raised position, fl SfihOWH full lines in Figure 3.

The level of the movable guard element 25, when raised position, is determined by the location of the lower ends of the slots and these slots 35 are so correlated with the screws 35 and the upper end of the guard element 25 that the guard element 25, when in a raised position, is above the line of the roll pass, that is, above a line tangent to the rolls to and II at the point of contact or at their points .of mini mum separation. The upper end of the guard element 25 is in front of and above the lower edge of the ,fixed guard element 2-3. It is impossible, therefore, for an operator of the machine to get his hands into the pass between the rolls ,ID' and U when the movable guard element 25 is in its raised position. There is space, howeyer, between the guard elements 23 and :25 for e orward e of th workpi c t at c r e er e uppergua d e eme t 3, o pass dow be en the tr u o the pper uard elem n 23 and the top rearward edge of the lower guard element 25. If more clearance is necessary, and this depends upon the thickness and curvature of the workpiece, the lower guard element 25 is pushed downward by the workpiece which travels under the bottom of the guard element 23 and into contact with the lower roll H at such an angle that the rotation of the roll ll advances the workpiece into the pass between the rolls HI and II. V

The movable guard element 25 can be depressed, into the dotted line position shown in i ure 3, by inserting a workpiece into the space between the uard elements 23 and 25 at the a gle indicated by the dash lines 50. With the workpiece in such a position, the operator presses down on the outer portion of the workpiece and forces the movable guard element 25 downward so that the werk-piece can move into line with the elp ss.- 7

The mas o the coun erwe ghts M and the spacing from the fulcrum shaft 4; are sochosen that the movable element 25 cannot be displaced downward easily enough for the operator to depress it accidentally. The leverage provided by a workpiece that has its forward end inserted under the upper guard element 23 assists the operator in pushing the movable guard element 25 downward with the workpiece. For working on very light materials, it is sometimes advisable to ,moye the ,counterweights lkcloser to the fulcruin shaft b42150 that the. movable guardtelement 25 can be pushed downward without bending the workpiece out in front of the movable guard element 25. Such bending would be in a direction opposite to that for which the machine is designed.

The upper roll H] has necks at opposite ends supported int-bearings 52 and 53 (Fig. 2). A gear 55 at one end of the top roll I0 is driven to supplypower for rotating the roll Ill. The lower roll II is preferably an idler. The bearing 52 is supported :on' the machine in such away that it can be rocked so as to permit the opposite end .of the roll. it ito be raised to facilitate removal of the workpiecev that is wrapped around the upper. roll and itsfixed .guard=2% A support on which the bearing 52 can be rocked to permit such movement of :the upper roll zl flsand guard element 251s shown diagrammaticallyaas a pivot support 5i connecting the hearing :52: with the main frame .35 of the machine. A guard .58' over the gear 55 is rigidlyconnected with the beari-ng assembly 52 and rocks :with this bearing as; sembly. The fixed guard e1ement-123 at the :end adjacent the driving gear 55 is secured to-the gear housing 58 by screws E59 extending. through a flange 516 that is welded or otherwise attached to the end of the gua'm element 12-3. Theother end of the guard element 23 :is attached tozan end plate 52 that extends ;,inw-ar,d and is cut-out: to it .over the neck of the upper roll l0.

The bearing .53 has a :cap 63 attached text-he lower portion of the bearing by bolts 54, one; or.

both of which are preferably connected to the lower part of the bearing by a pivot about which the bolts 61 can be rotated to shift the bolt 6.! beyond the ends of slots 51 in the bearing cap so that it is not necessary to coinpletely remove the nuts from the bolt 54 when the bearing cap 53 is to be-taken from the machine.

With the bearing cap 63 removed, the upper roll H) can be lifted and rocked about the pivot connection 5] so that the upper and lower rolls e e arated a d a pi ce can be removed endwise. irom the upper roll. The endplate 162 n pe guard element 23 are lifted :upward a a ni with t e upper roll t. This is an impo tantfeature because the upper guard element 23 is substantially concentrie with the upper roll I 0 and spaced from the upper roll by only a small clearance so that the machine can be used for rolling workpieces of only slightly lar er diam,- eter than the diameter of the upper roill -I [1.

Plate 612 has an opening in the center so that it will slide over the bearing of roll 1.0,, thereby upp t n the entire upp r roll guard 23 so that when h upp r t ll is raised to remove the work-' piece, endwise, guard element 23 :mowes with the= roll ID.

The pr fe red embodiment of the invention has, been illustrated and described. Terms of ;orienta-,

tion are, of course, relative. Changes and modiin the claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. A rolling machine including upper and lower rolls defining a pass through which a workpiece advances, a frame, bearings at opposite ends of the lower roll for supporting said lower roll on the frame, other bearings on the frame for supporting the upper roll, one of said other bearings having a removable cap that can be lifted so that one end of the upper roll can be raised for removing a workpiece edgewise from the roll pass,

a pivoted support for the other bearing at the other end of the upper roll for rocking movement when one end of the roll is raised, a guard element of cylindrical section overlying the top and front of the upper roll, said guard element being rigidly connected with the pivoted bearing structure at one end of the roll and supported from the bearing structure at the other end of the upper roll, and a movable guard element in front of the lower roll effective in one position to block access to the roll pass but movable into another position to open a space for entrance of a workpiece into the roll pass.

2. A rolling machine including upper and lower rolls defining a, pass through which a workpiece advances, a frame, bearings at opposite ends of the lower roll for supporting said lower roll on the frame, other hearings on the frame for supporting the upper roll, one of said other bearings having a removable cap that can be lifted so that one end of the upper roll can be raised for removing a workpiece edgewise from the roll pass, a pivoted support for the other bearing at the other end of the upper roll for rocking movement when one end of the roll is raised, a guard ele-- ment of cylindrical section overlying the top and front of the upper roll, said guard element being rigidly connected with the pivoted bearing structure at one end of the roll and bein supported from the bearing structure at the other end of the upper roll, and a movable guard element in front of the lower roll effective in one position to block access to the roll pass but movable into another position to open a space for entrance of a workpiece into the roll pass, said movable guard element comprising an angle section extending for the full width of the Work face of the lower roll and connected at opposite ends with slides supported by the frame on which the bearings are supported, a shaft supported at opposite ends by said frame, a plurality of levers fulcrumed on said shaft, link means between the forward. end

of the levers and said slides for rocking the levers on the fulcrum shaft when the slides and lower guard element move up and down, weights on the end portions of the levers remote from the link connections, and means for adjusting the Weights to different positions along the lengths of the levers to control the effective force of the weights transmitted through the levers and links to the lower guard element.

EMIL F. GOERG.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,106,920 Brock Aug. 11, 1914 1,146,547 Bishop July 13, 1915 1,493,504 Schuessler May 13, 1924 1,568,905 Munro Jan. 5, 1926 1,610,400 Walton et a1 Dec. 14, 1926 1,705,120 Johnstone Mar. 12, 1929 Certificate of Correction Patent No. 2,491,655 December 20, 1949 EMIL GOERG It is hereby certified that errors appear in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows:

Column 2, line 31, strike out the Words and hyphen his hands close enough to the roll pass to inand insert msteed lents, and this view illustrates the manner in;

and that the said Letters Patent should be read with these corrections therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Offioe.

Signed and sealed this 18th day of April, A. D. 1950.

THOMAS F. MURPHY,

Assistant Uommz'ssz'oner of Patents. 

